Oh i agree, and it wouldn't shock me if none of them actually got hit with felonies, but that isn't the point. It's what 22 is trying to make the point because its a distraction from the real issue. Any number of them could cop to lesser crimes for reduced penalties/charges, or be let off completely via probation or monetary punishment. All very true. But what they were involved with was calculated and is a legitimate crime. 22 doesn't want to talk about that b/c it detracts from his Mac is amazing and has the program in great shape narrative. He wants you to view everything through the lens of a felony charge being levied b/c he knows most of them will get off easy. His actual point in this thread is to make people believe that unless lots of felony charges occur, there's nothing at all to this. It just simply isn't so. No felony charges could be levied and its still a big deal b/c of the amount of people in the locker room involved with it, and because it was a calculated scheme to defraud.
When I was a teenager we used to get into the drive-in theater by hiding in the trunk. There were usually four of us involved. At the time, $500 was the threshold for felonies. I don't know if we did it enough times to surpass that threshold. The fact that there were four of us involved and it occurred more than once meant that in the eyes of the law it was a conspiracy to defraud.
What we did was wrong. We didn't realize it at the time due to our age and ignorance, but the owner of the theater surely needed and definitely deserved the money we should have paid. Looking back on it now, I feel badly that I was selfish enough to commit what possibly could have been deemed a felony.
We weren't smart enough to think up the scheme on our own. We had heard about others doing it and even seen it in movies. It was a fairly common thing wherever drive-in theaters existed. That doesn't justify the act, but it was part of our flawed logic at the time.
People on this board don't have to admit that they personally are doing the same thing when they deceive their employer and make them think they are earning the money they receive for work not performed. The point is that each of us at some point in our lives has in some way taken something that we did not earn or deserve.
It's easy to judge others more harshly than you would judge yourself.